03 May 2005

N.Y. disqualifies many ballots

Yancey Roy

(May 3, 2005) — ALBANY — A quarter of a million New Yorkers had to vote on paper ballots last fall, and more than half of those votes were disqualified by local election officials, a new report showed Monday.

The total of 257,775 "provisional" ballots cast in New York was second among the states to California's 668,408. Advocates say the number of paper ballots — used when, for example, someone isn't listed on voter rolls — shows that New York should let voters register on Election Day and not require registration 25 days in advance.

States have higher voter turnout if they allow Election Day registration, as is the case in Minnesota (78 percent in 2004 ), said the five groups issuing the report. New York's turnout, 57 percent, ranked near the bottom.

"Election Day voter registration is one of the easiest steps our state Legislature could take to expand voter participation," said Doug Israel of Citizens Union, one of the five groups.

New York also disqualifies a large share of paper ballots: 59 percent or 151,776 last year. The national average is 35 percent.

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Government Accountability Report

While electronic voting systems hold promise for a more accurate and efficient election process, numerous entities have raised concerns about their security and reliability, citing instances of weak security controls, system design flaws, inadequate system version control, inadequate security testing, incorrect system configuration, poor security management, and vague or incomplete voting system standards, among other issues. For example, studies found (1) some electronic voting systems did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, and it was possible to alter both without being detected; (2) it was possible to alter the files that define how a ballot looks and works so that the votes for one candidate could be recorded for a different candidate; and (3) vendors installed uncertified versions of voting system software at the local level. It is important to note that many of the reported concerns were drawn from specific system makes and models or from a specific jurisdictions election, and that there is a lack of consensus among election officials and other experts on the pervasiveness of the concerns. Nevertheless, some of these concerns were reported to have caused local problems in federal elections resulting in the loss or miscount of votes and therefore merit attention.

'In Ohio" - Free MP3

Madog Pavanelli & the Virtual Country Boys new song, "In Ohio"

3 T I M E S I N O H I O

Ohio's Presidential Election was a fraud in 2000 and 2004. Care to go for three? They can. They control the elections. That'll be three times Ohio handed over the country. What about the current insane financial devastation? With that, George Bush can cross the last task off his "to screwup" list. Congress and the major candidates don't even want to get it. Wall street most surely gets it - and keeps on getting it. Meanwhile people are losing their homes, jobs and savings. We need to hold them all accountable and stop all this. In Ohio, the poster child for stolen elections... does Main Street really care??